Vladimir Ivanovich Gere

Born May 17 (29), 1837, in Moscow; died there June 30, 1919. Russian historian. Professor of world history at Moscow University from 1868 to 1904.

Ger’e was one of the first scholars in Russia to deal with modern history, in particular the age of the Great French Revolution. From the first he contrasted the revolutionary experience in France to the method of change “from above,” supposedly characteristic of Russia, and his views on revolution developed in an ever more reactionary direction. Being opposed to the materialist tendencies in historiography, he devoted most of his attention to the history of ideas, which he interpreted from the standpoint of extreme idealism. At the university he conducted the first systematic seminar courses in Russia, in which he dealt also with social and economic questions. Among his students were N. I. Kareev, P. G. Vinogradov, M. S. Korelin, R. Iu. Vipper, and E. N. Shchepkin.

Ger’e organized the Advanced Courses for Women in Moscow in 1872. Moving more and more to the right in his political evolution, he ended up joining the Octobrists in 1906. In 1907 he became a member of the State Council by appointment.